


Make It Right

by CydSA



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-12-04 00:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/704589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CydSA/pseuds/CydSA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the night Adam is named artist of the year for GLAAD, Kris has a surprise for him. He just hopes that it’s not too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make It Right

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by the incomparable sbb23
> 
> Written for kradamreversebb

Adam was sick of everything. He sat backstage and stabbed viciously at an innocent lettuce leaf.

“What did the lettuce do?” Tommy’s amused question broke into Adam’s funk.

He looked up. “It existed.”

His bleak statement made Tommy grin harder. “Stop taking your issues out on your food, man.” His lazy drawl was part Valley-girl, part annoying bitch and Adam snorted.

“Be grateful I’m attacking my salad and not you,” he muttered.

“You’re bored,” Tommy stated.

“This is not new information,” Adam pointed out.

“You need a hobby.” Tommy tapped a finger against his chin. “You should crochet. Or macramé or some shit.”

Adam glared at him. “Remind me why I keep you around again?”

“My charming personality,” Tommy stated confidently.

“In your dreams.” Adam sighed. “I hate my life.”

Tommy sat down opposite Adam and helped himself to a tomato slice. “You have an awesome life.”

“It’s boring.” Adam was starting to see a pattern.

“You need a little boring every now and then to balance out the utter bat-shit crazy that the rest of it all is.” Tommy pointed a lettuce leaf at him. “Boring makes the crazy a little more tolerable.”

Adam felt a twinge of guilt. Being a member of Adam’s band had not been good for Tommy’s love life. It had been utterly awesome for his career though.

“My fans been hassling you again?” he asked.

Tommy shrugged. “Eh, they mostly just tweet _at_ me wanting to know why you and I haven’t come out yet.”

Adam groaned. “God, I’m so sorry.” He rubbed his eyes and smudged his eyeliner. 

“Whatever, man, I signed up for the gig and I stayed on. It’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting after the first tour.” Tommy pulled the rest of Adam’s salad towards him and started eating.

“Katy had the baby,” Adam blurted and flushed. That wasn’t what he’d intended to say.

Tommy looked at him. “And?” It was sort of fascinatingly disgusting staring at the masticated greenery in his mouth.

“Nothing,” Adam sipped at his energy drink. It seemed like some days, it was all that would stay down.

“You don’t start a conversation about the wife of your ex-boyfriend having a baby and then say ‘nothing’,” Tommy said.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Adam muttered into his drink.

“Oookay then,” Tommy drawled. “I’m going to leave you to wallow in your misery with the reminder that it’s half an hour to show time.” He stood up. “You told Kris to stay away from you, man.” His face was kind. “You made the call.”

Adam glared at Tommy. “I said I don’t want to talk about it!”

Tommy held up his hands. “Fine, no talking.” He left Adam with a decided slam to the dressing room door.

“Fuck.” Adam dropped his head to the counter. Then he lifted his head again and stared in horror at his reflection. “Fuck.” His eyeliner had smudged across his cheeks and he looked like a demented zebra. Half an hour was barely going to be enough time to repair the damage.

******

Kris fidgeted with his guitar strings. He still wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but Tommy had agreed with John on this and, for better or worse, he was here.

He looked up when the door opened and John came in with two burgers and a couple of sodas. “Did anyone see you?” he asked.

John barely refrained from rolling his eyes as he handed Kris his meal. “Nobody saw me, agent double-oh-three-and-a-half.”

Kris narrowed his gaze at John. There was a short joke in there somewhere. He knew it. “If Adam sees you…” he trailed off.

“I’m like the stealthiest dude on the planet, man,” John assured him. “Black Widow learned her stealthy moves from me.”

Kris unwrapped the burger and dug in. Having something to do, even if it was only eating, calmed his nerves a little.

“Tommy says that everything is set up.” John sat down opposite him and started eating too. “All you have to do is be in the rig at the start of “Outlaws of Love” and we’ll take care of the rest.”

Kris wasn’t so sure about this anymore. “Why can’t I just go and tell him I’m here and that I’ve left Katy?” he asked. “I’m not the guy for the big gesture.”

John leveled a stare at him. It was a pretty scary stare from a guy who usually looked like a giant teddy bear. “Kris, you have fucked this guy over so many times. You _owe_ him the big gesture.”

And the suckiest thing about it was that John was right. Adam had allowed Kris to dictate the terms of their relationship for almost four years until finally he’d drawn the line.

Kris didn’t like remembering that last conversation because he’d been a complete asshole who had deserved everything Adam had said to him, and then some. He might have been drunk for about three weeks after that one. He wasn’t proud of himself at all.

“I’m going to puke on stage,” he warned John.

John smiled at him and patted his knee. “Take a dopamine and suck it up, crybaby.” Kris thought that John might be enjoying this all a little too much.

“I signed the papers,” he said around a bite.

John stopped chewing and stared at him. “Seriously?”

Kris nodded. “I didn’t have much to give her but she got it all.” 

John wiped his mouth with a napkin. “And how do you feel about that?” He seemed to be choosing his words a little more carefully now.

Kris shrugged. “Sad. Relieved. A failure. I don’t know.” He looked at John. “I expected a lot more wailing and gnashing of teeth,” he admitted.

John thought about this for a moment. “Maybe because you’d already cut ties emotionally?” He carried on eating. “I mean, let’s be brutally honest, man, you checked out of your marriage the minute you met Adam.”

Kris hated that this was true. He’d met Adam and fallen so hard, so fast that he’d more or less forgotten the little blonde with the ring on her finger that should have meant his fidelity.

“I stopped being in love with Katy a long time before I let her go,” he said and he just sounded tired now. “I was a selfish ass. Both to her and with Adam.”

John didn’t say anything. There weren’t excuses for how Kris had behaved. That was the cross he had to bear. 

“Do you think he’ll forgive me?” Kris asked.

John took a deep breath. “Adam’s a good guy and he’s loved you for a very long time.”

“But,” Kris prompted.

“But you kinda screwed him over, man. More than once.” John shrugged. “If I were Adam I’d kick your ass so far away from me.”

“Thanks,” Kris muttered. That kind of honesty wasn’t helping his stomach settle. 

“But I’m not Adam.” John leaned forward. “And who knows, maybe he’s a better guy than I am.”

Kris finished his burger. “Adam’s the best person I ever met.” He aimed the rolled up paper from the burger at the wastebasket. “And he can be a complete bitch when he’s mad.”

“Let’s hope that he still loves you enough not to tell you to go and fuck yourself on international television,” John said.

Kris winced. The burger was not feeling so great in his stomach. He just _knew_ he was going to vomit on stage.

This had disaster written all over it.

******

Tommy was planning something.

Adam knew it.

He just had to find out what it was.

Tommy was a sneaky, devious bastard who’d played some insane practical jokes on Adam over the years. Adam wasn’t in the mood to deal with one of Tommy’s schemes right now.

“Whatever it is that you’re planning,” Adam gave Tommy a warning glare just before they were announced to go on stage. “Don’t do it.”

Tommy’s eyes were limpid pools of innocence. Adam knew better.

“Nothing planned at all,” he held up a hand. “Scout’s honor.”

Adam scowled. “You were never a boy scout.”

Just then, they heard their cue. “And here, singing a couple of songs from his album, “Trespassing”, is your GLAAD artist of the year, Adam Lambert!” Queen Latifah led the applause as Tommy and the band came on stage. Adam entered last.

He smiled and they started with ‘Cuckoo’, a feel-good, fun song that always got the crowd going. It was good to be on stage again. It was the one thing that Adam could always count on. He strutted and danced across the stage, letting his freak flag fly here among people who _”got”_ him and didn’t want him to be anyone other than himself.

“Thanks everyone,” Adam leaned into the mic as they finished the song to loud applause. “It’s been a wild and bumpy ride, but I guess that all journeys have their pitfalls and it makes the destination that much sweeter when you get there.”

He looked over at Tommy. “Let’s take it down a notch, shall we?” As Tommy played the opening bars of “Outlaws of Love”, Adam pulled a stool up to the front of the stage, sat down, and began to sing.

Adam had written this about Kris, for Kris, around Kris, and it choked him up every time. But Kris wasn’t a part of his life anymore, so now it was just a pretty song about getting to live the life you deserved to live. Adam could handle that.

******

Kris was standing at the elevator when the notes hit and his stomach plunged down to his feet. He looked over at John. “I don’t think I can do this!”

“Shut the fuck up and go and get your guy!” John was ruthless as he punched the button that would send Kris up onto the stage.

Kris wanted to puke.

The stage floor opened up above him and Kris closed his eyes as he started to emerge. Adam’s gorgeous voice was already weaving its magic through the air and Kris prayed that this wasn’t going to be a complete fuck-up.

He opened his eyes and caught Tommy’s encouraging gaze. John and Tommy, if they ever decided to take over the world, would be pretty hard to stop, Kris thought - and then he saw Adam.

Adam had dressed down tonight. He wore tight black jeans, black boots and a soft blue t-shirt that was the exact color of his eyes. He looked pretty much perfect to Kris. He always looked pretty much perfect to Kris. Even when he’d just woken up and his face was still puffy with sleep and his hair was a tousled mess. Even then Adam was perfect to Kris. For Kris.

The platform carried on rising until Kris was visible to everyone. Eventually it stopped at just above stage height so that Kris was looking down at Adam and the stage. The clapping started, but Kris had eyes only for Adam.

Adam who stared at him as though he had two heads. 

Kris strummed the chords of “Outlaws of Love” and Tommy gave him an encouraging smile, keeping time with Kris as Adam went silent.

But only for a moment. 

Adam was the consummate professional and he quickly added his voice to the guitar harmonies that Tommy and Kris were producing. Kris wanted to cheer but he didn’t. He just kept on playing and watching Adam.

And the song ended.

“Well, this is an unexpected surprise.” Adam’s voice was light and false and Kris could see the confused hurt in his eyes.

“Hey Adam,” Kris said softly. “I thought I’d surprise you.”

Adam laughed and it was so fake that it made Kris’ teeth ache. “Well, you certainly succeeded.”

There was no-one else there in that moment. It was just the two of them on stage, staring at each other.

Adam walked slowly towards Kris, stopping only when he tilted his head back to stare up at Kris. “Why are you here?”

Kris put his guitar down, wiping damp palms on his jeans. “It’s my grand gesture,” he confessed.

Adam’s eyes were still hard but now they were confused. “Your grand gesture?” he asked.

Kris nodded and swallowed over the giant ball in his throat. It might have been the goddamn burger. 

“And why do you need to make a grand gesture, Kris?” Adam’s voice was satin soft but Kris knew that tone. It was the warning siren just before the nuclear warhead hit.

“I signed my divorce papers today!” he blurted.

Adam went rigid.

“I only wanted to come and tell you when it was done.” Kris felt like he was talking past razor blades. Everything hurt and tension knotted inside him like a vise.

“And then what?” Adam asked.

Kris swallowed hard again. “And then you forgive me for being a dumb-ass and let me be your friend again.” He wouldn’t ask for more. He didn’t deserve more.

Adam shook his head. “I don’t want to be your friend, Kris.”

Kris closed his eyes. He was too late. Adam had let him go, moved on. He opened his eyes to level a glare at Tommy. This would have been so much easier if the asshole had told him this. “I’m…” he stopped. Took a breath. “I understand.”

He was pretty proud of himself as he put his guitar down and looked for a way off the platform. He prayed that he would be able to hold it together until he was out of sight of the prying eyes of the silent audience who had witnessed his humiliation.

A hand on his arm stopped him. “Where do you think you’re going?” Adam’s voice was sharp.

“Um,” Kris said.

“God, you are such a moron,” Adam told him and stepped closer until they were almost touching. “I just wish that you would fight for me.”

Kris waved his hand vaguely at the bazillion people watching this little soap opera. “Are you here and seeing this?” he asked. “This is me, fighting for you.”

Adam stared up at him. “Then why were you going to leave now?” His jaw lifted belligerently but Kris could see the hurt on his face.

“You told me that you don’t want to be my friend!” Kris shouted at him. Then he flinched. Well, at least the folks in the back weren’t going to miss anything now.

“Because I don’t want to be your fucking friend!” Adam shouted back.

Kris threw up his hands, utterly confused. “Then what the fuck _do_ you want to be?” The conversation was now being conducted as a shouting match and Kris couldn’t give a shit.

“You're fucking _EVERYTHING_!” Adam yelled, practically spitting it out at him.

And everything went a little hazy for a moment as the world turned white, just like when it snowed in January in Little Rock and the white covered the ground so that not even the loudest car was heard.

Almost without being aware of it, he reached out and cupped Adam’s face in his hands. He stared down into Adam’s eyes. Those eyes that when they’d first me, had danced with glee as he’d announced to everyone that he was out and proud and ‘fuck you all if you can’t deal with my awesome!’

“You _are_ ,” he promised Adam. “You always have been and I just don’t care who knows it anymore. That’s my grand gesture. I love you, Adam. Let me make it right with you.”

And Adam kissed him. 

And Kris kissed him back.

Twice as hard.

Just so Adam knew that he meant it.


End file.
